⚠️ Source-confidence note: a ubiquitous home dish documented in many family recipes, but no published source gives its history or town variants. The bean and meat choices in §3 are the variations that recur across Lebanese recipe writers.
01Geographic & Texture Profile
- Primary Geographic Zone: All of Lebanon (urban and village home cooking). The same yakhneh (stew) and rice pairing is cooked in Syria and Palestine.
- Liquid & Texture Profile: Caldoso (soupy). A tomato bean stew ladled over vermicelli rice.
- Traditional Cooking Vessel & Fuel: A pot for the stew and a second pot for the rice, on the stove.
02Historical & Cultural Context
Fasoulia means "beans" in Arabic, and it is also the name of one of Lebanon's most popular stews: beans in a tomato sauce with beef or lamb, garlic and coriander, served over riz bi sh'ariyyeh (vermicelli rice). Hence the full name fasoulia w riz, "beans with rice". It is part of the large family of Levantine yakhneh (stews of a vegetable or legume with a little meat and tomato) that are always eaten with rice. Others are bamieh (okra), bazella (peas), loubieh (green beans) and sabanekh (spinach). Weekday lunch is often one of these, plus rice and a salad.
The Spanish structural parallel is the bean-and-pork winter pot rices such as arròs amb fesols i naps and arroz y habichuelas. The Lebanese table, however, keeps the stew and the rice separate until the plate.
Culinary science: browning small cubes of lamb or beef before the tomato builds the stew's base. Simmered beans release starch, which thickens the sauce. If it's too thin, cooks mash a few beans or reduce it uncovered. A final taklieh of garlic fried with fresh coriander, stirred in at the end, adds the bright Lebanese finish.
03Local Town-by-Town Variations
- White beans (cannellini, fasoulia baida): The most common everyday version.
- Large lima or butter beans (fasoulia aarida): With slow-cooked lamb, a richer winter stew.
- Red kidney beans: With small meat cubes, onion, tomato paste and garlic. Some call it "Lebanese chili".
- Vegetarian / Lenten: Without meat, with olive oil (bi zeit).
- Rice: Always vermicelli rice; long-grain is preferred over basmati in many households.
- Town variants: ⚠️ Not documented.
04The Master Recipe (4-Person Batch Blueprint)
Variant represented: white-bean fasoulia with lamb, over vermicelli rice.
The Flavor Base (El Fondo)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Dried white beans, soaked overnight (or 2 × 400 g tins, drained) | 250 g dried |
| Lamb or beef shoulder, 2 cm cubes | 400 g |
| Olive oil | 3 tbsp |
| Onion, chopped | 1 |
| Tomato paste + crushed tomatoes | 2 tbsp + 400 g |
| Water or stock | ≈ 800 ml |
| Lebanese 7-spice, salt, pepper | 1 tsp / to taste |
| Taklieh: garlic 4 cloves + fresh coriander 1 bunch fried in 2 tbsp oil | — |
Assembly Ratios
| Element | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Riz bi sh'ariyyeh | 300 g rice + 50 g vermicelli, 600 ml water |
| Stew : rice per plate | ≈ 2 ladles over 1 cup of rice |
Step-by-Step Cooking Blueprint
- Beans: Simmer the soaked beans in fresh water for 45–60 min until just tender (skip for tinned).
- Meat: Brown the meat in the oil (8 min). Add the onion (5 min), then the tomato paste (1 min) and spices.
- Stew: Add the crushed tomatoes, the water and the beans. Simmer covered for 45–60 min, until the meat is tender and the sauce coats a spoon. Mash a few beans if it's too thin.
- Taklieh: Fry the garlic and coriander in the oil for 1 min and stir into the stew. Check the seasoning.
- Rice: Meanwhile, make riz bi sh'ariyyeh.
- Serve: Rice on the plate and stew ladled over it, with pickles, radishes and fresh onion.
